


Turn Off the Light

by thekingslover



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ficlet, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26520106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekingslover/pseuds/thekingslover
Summary: Joe has been quiet all afternoon, and it worries Nicky. Nicky has been quiet too, waiting for Joe to tell him what is wrong, as he always does when he’s ready. But it’s almost time for bed and Joe seems content to take his troubles with him to sleep.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 17
Kudos: 356





	Turn Off the Light

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my nickyjoe tumblr sideblog, monicashipsnickyjoe. Main blog is thekingslover

Joe has been quiet all afternoon, and it worries Nicky. Nicky has been quiet too, waiting for Joe to tell him what is wrong, as he always does when he’s ready. But it’s almost time for bed and Joe seems content to take his troubles with him to sleep.

Joe sits on the bed, back against the headboard, staring at his hands as he crosses his fingers loosely together.

Nicky watches him through the mirror in the bathroom while he brushes his teeth. After rinsing, Nicky walks into the closet to change. He pulls on his softest cotton shirt and flannel pants, the kind Joe usually likes to wrap himself around like an octopus. When he exits the closet, he finds Joe still studying his hands.

Nicky walks to the bed. “Should I leave the light on or off?”

Joe takes too long to answer. “Off.”

Reaching for the lamp on the nightstand, Nicky clicks it off, and then settles onto his half of the bed and into the covers. He waits, but Joe does not reach for him.

He waits longer.

Longer.

The moon is high, Joe is distant, and Nicky is ready to burst from his skin.

So he asks, softly, “Joe?”

“Forgive me, my heart.”

Nicky turns, finding Joe in the darkness. He has not moved, still peering down at where he worries his hands together. Nicky places his own atop them. Finally, Joe looks at him instead.

“Did something happen?” Nicky asks.

“No,” Joe says in an uncertain kind of way that means there’s more to follow. Nicky doesn’t wait long. “At the market today, the sun hit your face in such a way that…”

Nicky squeezes his hands.

“It brought to life a nightmare.”

“It is only that,” Nicky tells him. “I am alive. I am here, beside you.”

“It was… vivid.”

Gently, Nicky separates Joe’s hands and guides one to his chest, over his heart. Joe’s fingers splay, pressing into the cotton and the bone.

“This is your soft shirt,” Joe says, inching down onto the bed, away from the headboard.

“Yes,” Nicky says.

Joe traces the length of the shirt to the hem, then lets his fingers dance across Nicky’s hip under the covers. “Your soft pants, too.”

“You like them,” Nicky says.

Any lingering unhappiness slips from Joe’s face, and as he looks up at Nicky’s eyes, his own overflow with love and warmth and comfort. The fear is still there, but it is distant, ebbed.

“Fortunate is the man you love,” Joe tells him.

Nicky shifts closer. “Handsome, too.”

Joe smiles, the first in too long, and Nicky leans in to catch it against his lips and keep it there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
